Grace Li was reflecting on her actions, wondering if she had acted too impulsively. When she was younger, she had done something similar. Around eleven or twelve, she was sensitive and a little naive. Whenever her parents scolded her for seeming less favored than her brother, she would throw a tantrum and threaten to run away from home. Looking back, she realized how childish that was; she was just trying to get her parents' attention. Now, at thirty, she found herself thinking about "escaping" again.
She couldn’t stand the suffocating atmosphere in the house anymore, the feeling of being an outsider, a "black sheep" in the family. If she stayed any longer, the guilt and anxiety would just keep growing. She longed for the peaceful and independent environment of her apartment in New York,
